May I take this opportunity, since it is my first time writing to your paper, to congratulate you for the good work. Your paper is the only English paper I buy every Sunday. I used to buy The Sunday Times before but I don’t anymore because of its outright bias against the Labour Party; on the other hand I find your paper to be objective and interesting.
I would like to comment as an MLP paying membership and show my views regarding the leadership contest; I totally disagree with George Abela’s candidature. I think you have to be really self-righteous to think you should even be considered for the post after having forsaken the party for nearly ten years. Besides that he also criticised Dr Sant constantly; it seems to me personally that it was more a question of sour grapes rather than the wellbeing of the party.
I myself did not always agree with some of the policies adopted by Dr Sant way back in 1996. Furthermore, I was one of those who use to attend Dr Abela’s meeting were he insisted that the MLP should take care more of his supporters and not adopt the practice of Dr Sant where he tried to enhance the culture of merit and not of who you are; and now Dr Abela is speaking of an inclusive party. How he has the nerve of being so hypocritical is beyond me. There are more comments that I would like to express but unfortunately I do not have the talent to write down all my thoughts.

Jennifer Tabone
Kirkop

Well, now we know how the Nationalist Prime Minister with his smile can pull a fast one on the people. Nothing was said during the election campaign on such a hot delicate issue. Partnership for peace – what a laugh. However I suggest they send their children into the hotspots for peace first. And to the Brigadier: please don’t give us training bull****. You were not able to keep small boats from invading our island with illegal people and you want to keep the peace in hotspots? What a laugh.

M.N. Cassar
Valletta

Robert Arrigo is right to feel disappointed for being left out of the Cabinet of Ministers. His excellent performance, in the two districts he was elected from, should have given Dr Gonzi some insight into how the electorate feels about his past administration's maladministration (pun?).
I had commended Robert, apart from Harry Vassallo, Martin Debono and John Dalli, as a valid candidate during a TV chat show last January. I had specifically mentioned their names as they are all worthy of occupying responsible roles in the management of our country’s affairs. They are all dedicated to the task they are given.
Robert has done his utmost to build a local council, obviously with others, in Sliema and has always struggled with whomsoever to protect the residents. Martin Debono is, for many people with good faith, a strong character and this he has shown to be his forte throughout the last decade, both in his dedication to the local council of Sliema, where he has been a councillor for as long, as well as in his personal efforts to protect the Sliema residents and the business community from the greedy speculators who were, and are being, allowed to place their monstrous edifices on the citizens’ doorsteps and public land.
Harry Vassallo is an icon of the truth, showing one and all that he does not dance to the tune of any agenda-charged and corrupt gang. Please note that the meaning of corruption is not just purely an act of exchange of money in return for favours. It also means moral deterioration. Harry has his morals solidly inbuilt into his unbending respect for righteousness. He too has been standing high, waving the flag of alert in a country where politics have become like a football match. The I-don't-care, we-won attitude of the supporters is amazingly naive, to say the least.
Another stalwart of a politician is John Dalli who has, single-handedly steered these islands into the safe waters of economic revival. His belief in good principled governance has been the driving force in this man’s achievements for Malta. Before he was unfairly and immorally shoved out of Cabinet some three years ago (vide Lawrence Gonzi’s public admission that he, himself, had boobed so badly, and did not have the decency to resign forthwith for such a colossal blunder) John was the mastermind to harmonise our economy with that of the EU’s stringent standards. It was this man who laid the foundations for the smooth entry into the Eurozone. No small accountant could have done that without John’s input and preparation.
Back to Robert Arrigo’s unhappiness and sense of awe with Gonzi’s attitude, I must also mention the fact that the PM’s reappointment of old ministers like Giovanna Debono, George Pullicino and Austin Gatt smacks of arrogance too. But Robert has to also read between the lines and thank God he was left out of the botched set of assistant managers. The glass is half full. Who knows who shall be next, after Joe Saliba and Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando? The higher the fall, the louder the thump.

Jo Said
Selmun

Robert Arrigo is a true gentleman and an exemplary, successful businessman. No more words need to be written about Robert’s integrity. The electorate has just confirmed this – electing him from two districts, tops on the 10th and second to the Prime Minister on the 9th district which he contested for the first time.

Ray Pace
Pembroke

Jeffrey Pullicino Orland must resign. All the voters who voted for him in both districts were misled by Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, because he said that he did not know exactly about the permit. In my opinion those votes were based on a lie, so my question is, if the voters who voted for Pullicino Orlando had known the truth about the case of Mistra, would they have voted for him? And who would have taken his votes? The MLP?

Joseph Buttigieg
Via email